The White Shield Part 20

"And is that all thou hast to say, wife of Untuswa?" said the King, softly, and putting his head on one side, as his manner was.

"This, too, Father. For many nights past I have heard, as it were, a woman's voice singing around our kraal. I doubt not it was the voice of this witch, and that she hath lured the little one into the forest, to devour her, as the way is with such evildoers. But it is Untuswa who has brought her about our ears to blight us with a curse."

"In truth, thou art an excellent wife--a very milch-cow of price," said the King, mocking her. "In truth, it is worth a man's while to throw away his life for such as thee. Thou art, indeed, worthy to be the chief wife of one of my best fighting-captains. Thou who wouldst seek to throw on to his shoulders the consequences of thine own neglect, and fill up our ears with such childish tales of witches singing around the gates! And thou, Untuswa, thou art happy, indeed, in the possession of such! Well, woman, such babble is of no avail. The alligators are hungry."

The _izimbonga_ raised a chorus of praise, and the frightened company of my people, seeing that only five of their number were to suffer, joined in. And now, bending low before the King, I craved a boon.

"The wisdom of the King is great, and his justice is terrible," I said.

"But these, it is for these I would speak," pointing to my younger wives.

"Say on, Untuswa," said the King.

"Not for me is it to question the will of the Great Great One. But I would ask, Father, that these might be spared, at any rate, for a few days longer. It may yet be that Kwelanga is found, and then, my Father, what will she do, finding that those who took care of her are no more?"

"Strange care have they taken of her, Untuswa," replied Umzilikazi.

"Hold! Whom have we here?"

For over the plain a great mult.i.tude was advancing. As it drew nearer, we could make out that at some paces in front of it walked a woman.

That she was tall and straight, and beautiful of build, we could see even from there. Nearer--nearer, she drew; advancing direct to where was seated the Great Great One. In silence the people parted to make way for her, and, not hesitating a moment, she paced up to the King, her head thrown slightly back, proud, stately of bearing, as though she were a queen. Then, halting, she bent down, yet not very low, and cried, "_Bayete_!" And we who looked thought we had never beheld so fair and gracious a type of womanhood; while I, for my part--_Whau Nkose_! it seemed as though the end of all things was at hand, for she upon whom I now gazed--upon whom we all gazed--standing there before the King, was none other than Lalusini, the beautiful sorceress who had bewitched me with her love.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

IN DARK WARNING.

There she stood--she on whom my thoughts had dwelt day and night--she for whom I had sought so carefully and yet so fruitlessly--she whom I had never expected to behold again. There she stood, and as quick murmurs of amazement, of admiration, went up from all who beheld, her eyes swept around our circle and rested upon my face--yet hardly rested--for in them there was no brightening, no recognition. She looked at me as she looked at the others--as though she had never seen me before.

Now I remembered Masuka's strange, dark, prophecy--how that the "she-eagle" should return, but that then the alligators should be fed.

The King would remember the name as spoken by Tauane--and that, coupled with Nangeza's accusation, ah--good night! Well, I cared not. I, like others, leaned eagerly forward as I crouched, straining my eyes to gaze upon the beauty of the sorceress. Yet even then, while her glance was not directly meeting mine, I seemed to read in her eyes an unspoken, yet none the less vividly-flashed, message--even as I had read the glance of old Masuka that dreadful day upon which I stood between the King's a.s.segai and doom. And the language I read in this glance was--"Caution!"

She was attired in the short, ap.r.o.n-like girdle of the Bakoni, ornamented with rich bead-work, and a light mantle of dressed fawn-skin similarly adorned hung from one shoulder. As when I saw her first, she wore upon her arms and neck bands of solid gold, after the manner of the richer of the Bakoni, and her hair was gathered up from the scalp into a high cone as the Zulu women wear it.

"Who art thou, my sister?" said the King, not choosing to show the astonishment which even he felt.

"I am of the Bakoni, Great Great One. I am called Lalusini," she answered in purest Zulu.

"Of the Bakoni? Lalusini? _Hau_! That is no name ever brought forth of the twisted tongues of those chattering dogs. It is a full ripe Zulu name, born of the race of the Heavens," returned the King. "Say now, Lalusini. What wert thou among the Bakoni dogs whom we have stamped flat? A prisoner?"

"Yea and nay, Black Black One. I was the Queen of their _muti_."

"Ha! Yet another magician! It seems that all the magicians in the world find their way, or are brought here: first old Masuka, then the white man--now this one," said Umzilikazi. "Ha, Untuswa--thou magician-finder! How is it thou didst not find this one--thou who didst find the rest?"

I only made murmur, for I guessed that the King was mocking me. And the moment was in truth a trial as he went on--

"Say now, Queen of the Bakoni _muti_. How didst thou escape death or capture when my children stamped flat thy people?"

"By the name thou spakest just now, Black Elephant--Queen of the Bakoni _muti_, Now of what use is _muti_ if it fails in the day of necessity?"

"Thy story I will yet hear," answered the King. "Now say, Lalusini, knowest thou Untuswa?"

"Untuswa? I seem to have heard that name. Surely it was that of the King's messenger, who with only one young man, and he unringed, did hold the Bakoni in defiance like a lion at bay."

"And thou hast not beheld him since that day?"

"I think not, Great Great One--and that day only from afar did I behold him. Nay I saw him once at the council, and then nearer. He was a tall man, who carried a very large spear."

"Look around, my sister, and tell me if he is here to-day," said the King.

Lalusini looked first among such groups of warriors as were mustered around. Then she stepped over to the a.s.semblage of _izinduna_ among whom I sat, and looked long and earnestly. Umzilikazi, meanwhile, was watching her narrowly.

"I think that is the King's messenger," she said, gazing into my face.

"He has the look of such a warrior as that one was."

But before anything more could be said Nangeza sprang forward, and her eyes were glittering with hate, and in her voice was a snarl as that of a wild beast.

"She is the witch whom Untuswa saved from the slaughter, reserving her for himself. Look, O King! Now they pretend not to know each other,"

shrieked Nangeza, darting her hand furiously forth as though it contained a weapon.

Now, _Nkose_, it was a dreadful moment for me, for at first there was dead silence. All were too amazed even to exclaim. I merely uttered a disdainful click, shaking my head. But Lalusini--she turned towards Nangeza, glanced her up and down, and laughed--laughed softly, musically. Then, waving her hands into the air, she began to sing, and the words were in the tongue of the Bakoni, which none there present understood. Yet her voice was musical and sweet, and in it there thrilled a mystery. All watched in silence as she moved her hands and feet to the measure of her chant. Since I understood this tongue, _Nkose_, I listened as though a great serpent were tightening its coils more and more around me, for her words were dark and full of a strange and terrifying mystery. Her song ceased.

"What dost thou seek here now, my sister?" softly said the King, for even he could not refuse to acknowledge the influence of her charm. "Is it to make _muti_ among thine own people, having had enough of the Bakoni dogs whom we have eaten up?"

"I think there are enough who make such _muti_ here, Black Elephant,"

she answered. "Not for this have I come. I am here to save the Father of a new nation."

"_Hau_!" we gasped, stricken well-nigh dumb, for the words were spoken slow and sad, and with weighty warning. None doubted but that they applied to a near attack on the part of our most to be dreaded enemies, and at once all men's minds flew to the _impis_ of Dingane advancing upon us in force--or, perhaps, the Amabuna, or even both in concert.

Dismay was on every face, for we liked not to be thus taken by surprise.

But upon that of Umzilikazi was a frown of terrible import, which meant badly for those from whose quarter the foe should first appear, they having failed to report it.

"Thy words are dark indeed," he said. "Explain, sorceress, for time does not wait."

But Lalusini, for reply, only returned a swift, silent glance. Then once more she burst into song, again in the Bakoni tongue. Her head was thrown back, and she seemed to be gazing at some momentous object invisible to us. She seemed to lose herself, to utterly forget our presence, as her voice rose wild and sweet and clear. Yes, indeed, there was a mystery in her song, and it seemed to me that the words had a very certain meaning; also that, all the while standing facing me as she was, her glance betimes met mine quickly, as in a flash, and with a purpose. It was, I felt, in her mind that I should mark her words and weigh them well. Thus they ran:--

"The Lion sinks To the serpent's fang; The eagle drops To the bowstring's tw.a.n.g.

"Great is small; Little is great; Great ones fall When the mean deal fate.

"The serpent's coil Hides the fangs of death; _A coil of blue_ Veils the serpent's breath.

"See the White Bull's pride O'er the Black Bull wave; _Now, the White Bull's hide May the Black Bull save_."

_Whau, Nkose_! Then was amazement my master--I its slave! The "coil of blue!" Such a blue-beaded girdle was that of Nangeza's skirt, beside which she wore little else when summoned before the King. Upon this my eyes fixed themselves, only, however, to follow once more the meaning glance of Lalusini. And the King sat wondering, yet not understanding the _muti_ song. And above his head, waving softly to and fro in the hand of its bearer, rose aloft the royal white shield. It was as the buzzing of bees within my ears that I heard the voice of the Great Great ONE.

"I have a mind to end this _indaba_," he was saying. "Thou, Nangeza, hast a pestilent tongue and an evil heart; wherefore my servant Untuswa must seek a new wife, for _thy place among us shall be empty_. Take her hence. The alligators are hungry."

"So, too, is Death, thou fool who art King!" yelled Nangeza. I saw her hand swift at her girdle. Something flashed through the air. It struck--struck hard and quivering--into the great white shield, which, quick as the movement, as the flash itself, I had s.n.a.t.c.hed from the shield-bearer, and whirled down so as to cover the person of the King.

It was one of those short, javelin-shaped arrows, such as were used by the mountain tribes, and sometimes among the Bakoni. And the point thereof was green and sticky with the most deadly of poisons.